A student gunmen killed three people and critically injured three more during a rampage Wednesday at a law school in Grundy, Virginia, the local coroner said.

The alleged killer, a foreign student facing expulsion for poor marks from the Appalachian School of Law, “executed” the dean, Anthony Sutin, and another instructor, and shot four students, said Doctor Jack Briggs. Students then overpowered the student, who used a. 38-calibre semi-automatic handgun in the shooting spree, said a spokeswoman for Virginia Governor Mark Warner. The law school is located in the Appalachia mountain range in far-western Virginia, about 500 kilometres west of the U.S. capital city of Washington.

Briggs, also a local physician, told broadcaster CNN he knew the gunman, who had complained of stress “six months ago, seven months ago” and in hindsight had been “a time bomb ready to go off”.

The student had apparently had academic difficulties during his first year at the law school. He came back but again scored low grades and may now have faced expulsion, Briggs said.

“So he took his anger out on the people he felt were responsible for him leaving the school,” the doctor said. “I had no idea it would affect him this way.”

The faculty members were “executed”, said Briggs, who said he found powder burns on the shirt of one victim, indicating he was “obviously shot at point-blank range”.

One of the students injured was shot in the chest, and the other two suffered abdominal wounds, the physician said. They were taken to Buchanan General Hospital, but their condition was no known. dpa fz